"Psychologically the latter part of Great Expectations is about the best thing Dickens ever did," assayed George Orwell of this 1861 novel by Charles Dickens. Philip Pirrip—known more commonly as Pip—is an orphan, whose visits to the enigmatic Miss Havisham, to play with her ward Estella, are his only escape from his childhood of poverty. An anonymous bequest changes Pip's life, and he is sent to London to be educated as a gentleman—until secrets from Pip's past emerge, threatening to destroy the genteel new life he has built for himself. Like the other titles in this series of affordable classics, this book has been reset in fresh type and includes a frontispiece illustration and a brief biography of the author.